1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to medical devices and methods. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for magnetically suspending tissue structures during minimally invasive surgical procedures.
A number of surgical procedures which previously required open surgery are now performed by laparoscopy and other minimally invasive procedures. In laparoscopic procedures, a camera and a number of tools are introduced into a body cavity through ports or other passages formed through the patient's skin. In many procedures, the abdomen is insufflated and several ports are placed through the patient's abdominal wall. The camera is introduced through one of the ports, and the remaining ports are used for introducing tools needed to manipulate internal tissue structures and to remove, oblate, cauterize, cut, or otherwise modify these tissue structures.
One limitation of such laparoscopic and other minimally invasive procedures is the limited number of ports available at any one time to accommodate the tools required to perform the procedures. In order to reduce the number of needed ports, it has been proposed to use external magnets to suspend and position organs. The magnets could thus perform the role of a tissue grasper without the need to utilize one of the available access ports. For example, a magnetic element may be introduced into the body cavity through a port or otherwise. The magnetic element will be coupled to a target organ and an external magnet used to attract and position the magnetic element in order to in turn position the organ as needed for the procedure. Several specific systems for magnetically suspending organs and tissue structures are described in the references identified below in the Description of the Background Art.
Although quite promising, such magnetic tissue suspending systems have typically been cumbersome to deploy, difficult to reposition during a procedure, and difficult to release and remove after the procedure is over. It is an object of the present invention to overcome at least some of these deficiencies.
2. Description of the Background Art
U.S. Patent Publ. Nos. 2010/0204727; 2009/0043246; 20120088965; and 20120238796 and PCT Publication WO2009/019288 describe magnetic tissue suspension systems useful in laparoscopic procedures. U.S. Pat. No. 7,169,104 describes a magnetic tissue suspension system useful in endoscopic procedures. U.S. Pat. No. 7,766,810; U.S. Patent Publ. 2008/0171907; and WO2008/089049 describe systems for filling an organ with a magnetic material and thereafter magnetically manipulating the organ.